Tomball area chamber praises bond proposals

By Bryan Kirk |
April 9, 2013

Representatives of Lone Star College-Tomball and the Tomball school district received a vote of confidence from the Greater Tomball Area Chamber of Commerce in support of their bond proposals on the ballot May 11.

Members of the chamber's government and legislative affairs committee met with college and district representatives April 2.

The Greater Tomball Area Chamber of Commerce board of directors voted by email on Tuesday, April 2 to support two entities.

"I for one support the community college district, because that is where the rubber meets the road," said Lamar Casparis, chairman of the board of directors. "I think the TISD has done an admirable job of getting kids to the point they are college ready so they can make that choice of whether they want to be in the work force, or they want to be in college. I want to applaud both institutions because you're doing a great job."

Tomball ISD bond

Tomball ISD, which has nearly 12,000 students, will ask voters to approve a $160 million bond that, if approved, will fund the construction of four new schools and provide upgrades to security, technology and transportation.

The board of trustees approved the bond referendum in February, which originally called for $168 million in district improvements.

Huey Kinchen, deputy superintendent of schools, said the need for more facilities is a direct result of the rapid growth the district has experienced since 2005.

And with the expected relocation of more than 10,000 employees and their families to the Exxon Mobil campus in Spring, that growth is expected to continue, Kinchen said.

"In Tomball, we've had unprecedented growth, and it looks like it's going to be that way for the next five years," he said. "Right now, we are at about 11,900 and some change."

The growth, Kinchen said, is what drives the bond initiative, most of which will be used to construct a K-4 elementary school and intermediate school in the district's south end, and a K-5 campus and junior high in The Woodlands.

"We already have schools on the ground in Northpointe (in the southern part of the district) that are at, or almost at capacity," he said.

The anticipated growth was the catalyst for the district to form a steering committee comprised of 17 community members and business leaders.

Over the course of three months, the committees studied data and made the recommendations for new construction, as well as needed upgrades in technology, transportation and security.

With this bond, taxes are expected to increase from $1.35 to $1.40 per $100 valuation.

"I have every confidence that the dollars raised for this bond are absolutely needed," said Michael Pratt, trustee.

Lone Star College bond

Meanwhile, the Lone Star College System will ask voters to approve a $497.7 million bond that will add 996,000 square feet of space for instructional and support buildings, add more than 5,600 parking spaces, and improve security and upgrade technology at all existing campuses.

Slightly more than $102 million of that bond, if it is approved, will be used at LSC-Tomball.

John Fishero, vice president of administrative services at LSC-Tomball, said LSCS was experiencing phenomenal growth and needed to expand in order to continue providing the tools needed for student success.

"We've had such growth that the facilities are really not adequate to manage what we have right now," he said.

"Last bond, LSC-Tomball got about the lowest amount, but this time Tomball gets next to the highest amount and that is a nice change."

Some of the proposed improvements to LSC-Tomball include adding satellite campuses in Magnolia and Creekside in The Woodlands, building out the Health Sciences building constructed under the 2008 bond, adding a new entry way into the college, a new student services/instructional building to the campus and 300 additional parking spaces.

Student access to the campus in spring 2014 could be limited once construction on that portion of Texas 249 begins, Fishero said.

"We really need to have that (completed)," he said.

"We actually had money allocated for that in the last bond, but because of some last-minute cuts that were necessary to finish the other facilities we were not able to complete it at that time."

The plan, Fishero said, will have an overpass completed from Texas 249 to the campus. Fishero said the centers, or satellite campuses, planned for Magnolia and Creekside say a lot about the growth in the area, especially since two previous centers (Cy-Fair and University Park) ultimately became LSCS stand-alone campuses.

"Tomball is the mother of Cy-Fair college and Willowchase, (known as University Park,)" he said.

While the growth is good for the local economy, there were concerns about whether or not the LSCS would raise taxes, which the district said they will not do.

"This was our most important stipulation as we considered asking the public to approve a bond referendum," said Randy Bates, LSCS board chairman.